We go outside for candlepassings.

I know this question wasn't directed at me, but my chapter only had a few candlepasses in my four years there, for a couple of reasons. First, people at my school didn't "lavalier" or "pin" each other. Second, maybe this is a regional thing, but I don't know many people that got engaged in college. That's considered a young age to get engaged/married at now. My sisters had serious boyfriends, but hardly any of them would have considered getting married in college or right afterward. They were too busy with school, and most probably considered themselves "too young."

That's true. It may be a regional thing. I always forget that the Southern part of the US tends to have a lower marriage age than the national average.

I just got married at the beginning of this month, and I'm turning 24 in a few days. By the standards of my high school, I'm a bit old- many of my old high school classmates already have children!

It's really not at all abnormal around here to be getting married shortly after college.

Congrats on the New Member of the year. I didnt know that.

I also come from a small family in the chapter so I feel you on needing to have a little (though I never did) :(

I had a candlepass for my engagement. However there were so many people in the room we just did it 1 time around for friendship 2 time arround for lavilere/engagement/ etc.

Even though we had a somewhat larger chapter (85-90ish) few women had serious boyfriends that 1) were in fraternities or 2) were into lavaliering or 3) were ready to propose. Even now, at 28, I would say less than half my pledge class is married or will be married soon. (The big joke was that the class a year below us would all be married before my pledge class is, and I think it's actually going to happen!)

The coolest was when our House mom had one for when she got "reengaged" to her ex. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, as the case was) it was called off.

So at my chapter, what typically happened was that if you were the woman who had gotten lavieliered/pinned/engaged you found another member of the chapter. She made the sign to hang, told the president etc. Often instead of telling one of your closest friends, women would tell another member that they felt comfortable in confiding in, but that sisters wouldn't suspect one of her close friends as being the honoree if someone caught her with the candle/sign etc. This always lead to a lot of speculation about who the candlepassing was for and was half the fun.

Typically we lined up by class - freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Our house mom would start it and pass it around once for friendship, always starting with the freshmen. Twice would mean lavieliered, three times for pinned and four times for engagement. I attended a lot of candlepassings in college and I think only one of them was ever for a pinning. I know one member of our chapter had five candlepassing when she was in school - three for lavieliering (yes, she got lavieliered by three different guys in three different fraternities), one for being pinned and one for being engaged.

I dont mean to sound dumb, but what exactly does lavieliered mean?

MOOOOSSTTTT Definitely!!! I have to get on it with tickets and what not (goodness UCF alumni things to do heh). However; I think that some Chi O alums are going to help out with the Prefs to the new chapter down at FGCU. I know the chapter is going down there to do it for them (How special is that?); but not sure about alums. I was told a few of us would - ie the ones that sung all the songs haha.

But even a dinner would be awesome to do!!

And Faith4Keep -- sorry about your feelings toward our chapter. I pinpointed most chapters out from the beginning! And definitely Sarah- there are only a few engineering females in Greek life.

For some reason I thought you were Stina (Christina). So beginning your thread I was stumped because I was like Stina went through in '03 with me -- and it didn't make sense.

Anyway- congrats on a great thread and finding your home!! And NM of the year!

1. Belated congrats on Theta. :)

2. AEPhi also forbids anyone who is not an initiated sister from wearing the Greek letters. New members can wear things that say "Alpha Epsilon Phi" or "AEPhi", but not "AEΦ".

3. Back in the day, we also did candle passes, with actual candles. We had a candle pass when I got engaged, and I had to explain carefully to a few people that I was engaged and not pregnant. :rolleyes: And speaking of candles, every year, the Greek Advisor would give us a lecture about how we weren't allowed to use candles during pref because they are a fire hazard... and every year, every sorority used them anyway.

Okay, what school is FGCU? I can't figure out the acronym!

You should definitely go; new chapters are so much fun!

As for a meetup, I'd actually be more in favor of meeting for a meal or something. It would probably be easier to schedule, since it's not confined to weekends.

I'm also not that much of a fan of football, and a glassy eyed and confused sherbertlemons isn't much fun!

Aww :) Florida Gulf Coast University! :) Well - I'm still awaiting the invitation - either way someone has got to teach the girls the songs :)

Dinners are always fun!!